New Facebook Page Best Practices and Useful Apps To Support It

In today's post we'll cover the best practices for the new Timeline for Facebook Pages and useful Facebook applications that you can use to help you improve your page with different types of content depending on your needs.

New Facebook Page Best Practices

1. Cover Photo vs. Profile

Your fans will no longer land on your Facebook Fan landing page, but on the new Timeline, so first impressions are really important. Be creative with your cover photo and make sure to use your logo as the main profile image/photo.

2. Posting

Ideally it's good to update your Facebook Page status once a day. Even better if you do it a couple of times during the day, but make sure that you don't update your status every five minutes. It is also recommended that you post regularly to stay visible to your fans.

Tips: Do a consistent weekly post like Freebies Friday for giving out freebies every Friday or a Monday News for a specific type of news every Monday.

3. Engagement

In order for you to create more social engagement through your Facebook Page, it's best to post something or anything that is actually related to your Facebook Page. If your page is a local restaurant, you obviously will not post anything about repairing a broken car. The point is to create a post that your fans expect from you and something that they find useful or valuable to share. It could be a tip on how to pick paint color for living room redesign for your interior design business. You could add photos or a video along with the post. Not only it will visually separate your post from other status updates, it will attract more interest from your fans to check it out.

Tips: Increase your fans engagement by asking them to post their holiday/vacation experience if you're in the travel industry or create a follow up post by posting a status that requires your fans to fill out the blanks.

4. Sales Offer

In addition to the new Timeline, Facebook also released the "Offer" feature for Facebook Pages. This is a great tool for any business, brand, and organization, especially if you are selling a certain product or service. It makes your page more valuable because your fans now get an exclusive offer just for them.

Tips: When posting your offers, don't go crazy with all capital letters, a simple line with standard punctuation works better. Offering a discount of 50% or BOGOF (buy one get one free) offer is proven to have a successful rate for Facebook offers.

5. Activity Highlights

With the new Facebook Page Timeline, it is easier to manage your status updates, photos/videos, or other page activities. Play around and try different posts and highlight those that you think are best to attract your fans' attention (click on the start icon when you hover on any post to highlight it).

Tips: Use the "Milestone" feature to highlight any important event that is happening or even use it to display your testimonials.

What's the difference between a highlighted post and a 'pin to top' post?

Highlight Post: The post will only be expanded to full width.

Pin to Top Post: The post will not be expanded to full width but will stay on the top of the other page activities (click on the pencil icon and select "Pin to Top").

New Facebook Page Best Examples

Useful Facebook Applications

Static iFrame Tab
This is a very basic application for which you will need knowledge of HTML.
Price: Free

Lujure
Lujure offers a wide range of features and demonstrates how easy it is to create a custom Facebook page tab with only a drag and drop action.
Price: Free, $30pm, $300pm

ShortStack
Similar to Lujure, ShortStack can help you customize your Facebook page with contests, sweepstakes and more.
Price: Free, $15 and up

Pagemodo
Pagemodo is another app that can help you create a custom tab instantly by using a ready-to-go template.
Price: Free, $4.38 and up

Conclusion

There is no prediction for how long this new Timeline format will last, but while it does, we're hoping that this current information and the examples above will help you to improve your engagement with your Facebook fans.

If you know of other best practices for the new Facebook Timeline, please share with us in the comments section below.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of Onextrapixel.

Ari Suardiyanti also known as Chykalophia, is a professional freelance designer in graphic and web design with 3 years of experience. Founder and Editor of Frespiration!, she recently won The Annual Design Awards 2010 for best product packaging design. Other than design, she loves playing with her mac, being photographed, watching movies and listening to alternative rock.